


All Is Fair

by Thedis



Series: Azure Moons (Feleth) [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Byleth is too dense to realise they are too, Felix is pining, Gender-Neutral My Unit | Byleth, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Light Angst, Other, Post-Time Skip, Pre-Relationship, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 04:38:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20540243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thedis/pseuds/Thedis
Summary: Byleth struggles by Dimitri's side. Felix tries to help in the only way he can think of.





	All Is Fair

Byleth caught the wooden sword out of the air before they knew who had thrown it.  
The night breezed past their opened door and played along their hair, cool and fragrant as they stared at the heir of House Fraldarius. His stance was casual, one hand on his hip, the other loosely holding on to a training blade.  
His gaze however was a challenge.

"Let's spar."  
"It's the middle of the night."  
"The later it gets, the better you fight. I want to beat you at your best."

The match had been going on for more than ten minutes, and by now, both participants were sweating and breathing heavily. Neither of them were giving the other a break tonight, their dance was a high speed game of chess, every second packed tightly with lunges, jabs, sidesteps and swipes.

Parry, jump, turn, strike, duck, strike, parry.

It was as hypnotic as it was fluent, changing with every move, every second putting the contestants in a different situation than the last, and yet, to any outsider it would have seemed that they moved as one.  
Their eyes were locked, each of them ready to strike, should they reveal with even the tiniest flinch where the next attack, dodge, or step would fall.  
Finally, with one blisteringly fast swing of their blade, Byleth managed to land a solid hit on Felix's kneecap, and for a moment believed the tides turned. They were proven wrong when their opponent, slightly off kilter after their strike yet fast to shift his weight accordingly, met their immediate frontal attack with an equally quick parry and suddenly twisted his blade with a smooth turn of his wrist, sending Byleth's sword flying.  
In an elegant curve, he brought his foot forward and the wood down, using the stability to take their footing.

Byleth landed on their palms and butt, awestruck as Felix took a step towards them, touching the tip of his sword under their chin. His breathing was still labored, his face still flushed, and he seemed hardly convinced of his victory.

"Were you going easy on me?"  
"You've simply gotten better."

Felix frowned. "Then it's because you spend so much of your time cheering us on instead of working on your own training."

"You disapprove."  
"Obviously. I need a worthy sparring partner."  
"Well, Fraldarius, I'm eager to learn, if you want to catch me up to speed."  
"Fine."

The answer came so quickly that Byleth's eyes went wide.  
Felix lightly placed his blade on their shoulder.

"Are you just going to sit there?"

Byleth grinned, nodding toward the sword. "You've been wanting to do that for a while, am I right?"

Felix looked away, red-faced, but smiling. Not as smug as they would have expected him to be after his victory.  
But then, he wasn't seventeen anymore.

"Shut up."

Or maybe he was. Their grin widened.  
"Do you want me to call you professor?"  
He blushed harder.  
"Shut up before I kill you."

Byleth laughed, until they noticed how mortified Felix looked all of a sudden.

"Forget I ever said that."  
"Felix...? Why-"

He leant down, took their hand and pulled them to their feet, not meeting their eye.

"I would never hurt you, you know that, right? Never. And I don't want you to think that even for half a second. I say this kind of stupid shit-"  
"Felix." He broke off.  
"You... Saw me and Dimitri in the cathedral."  
Byleth noticed the young man's fist clenching at his side, his forehead wrinkling with an intense frown, even his teeth were clenching.  
"I hated it."  
"Felix..."  
"Nobody should treat you like this. I won't allow it. Him least of all."  
He averted his eyes in shame, and Byleth immediately missed them. Felix's eyes, in addition to their beauty, were so warm with feeling at all times, even when his features betrayed nothing - so very different from Dimitri's, whose icy blue always remained undiluted both by his smiles and his frowns.

Even when he had threatened to kill Byleth.

"Is that why you asked me to spar? To distract me?"  
The swordsman huffed.  
"That obvious?"  
Byleth smiled at him.  
"I'm afraid so."  
"In any case, it's safe to say I messed that up," Felix mumbled.

  
They crossed their arms, smile unfaltering.

  
"Maybe you haven't distracted so much as comforted me."  
The young man gave that idea a thought.  
"Comforted, huh?"  
Slowly, his lips curled into the softest of smirks. "I suppose that wouldn't be so bad."

The moment lasted for a few precious seconds.  
With each one, Byleth's stomach began to feel more strange. Not unpleasantly so - or at least not more than any other unfamiliar thing.  
This feeling was entirely foreign to them. Warm, intense, light, but uneasy as well. It made them think of feathers, hot chocolate and small birds.

Felix broke their trance by clearing his throat.  
"Right," said Byleth, breathing in deeply in hope of washing away the confusion, and went for their training sword. If they couldn't focus, Felix would eat them alive.  
"Well then, professor Fraldarius..."  
The young man covered his beet red face with his palm, the image of exasperation.  
Byleth laughed.  
"Show me how to do that sword fling, will you?"

Byleth disarmed Felix at their third attempt, earning themselves an acknowledging nod, and a rematch.  
The exhaustion of their previous confrontation and the increasingly late hour of a busy day was taking an ever so slight a toll on the warriors. Where in their prior match they had moved with lethality and precision, the fight was now stretching on, and becoming messy.  
Felix took a jab to the back of his knee and a strong blunt hit to his kidney, Byleth put away two bruises to their side and one to their shoulder.  
They were circling each other like weary predators now, waiting for the other to break their ceasefire.  
Felix was the first to do so, ever a smidge less patient than his teacher. Byleth parried his strike and slid around him, landing a kick to his ankle that sent him stumbling.  
They moved in, both hands at the sword's hilt for a forceful thrust, but Felix caught himself, and from his lowered position, shot upwards, ramming the wooden blade against Byleth's ribcage so hard they nearly dropped their sword, a gasp of pain escaping them on impact. Felix lunged forward, eager to win, when, in the middle of his movement, he caught Byleth's eye.

They were in pain.

For the fracture of a second, Felix realised he might have struck too hard, when he felt his blade clash with theirs and immediately being twisted out of his grasp.  
Byleth stepped to the side and let Felix catch himself before he ended up running straight into the floor. The young man turned on the spot, cape flying behind him, out of breath, furious with the last pulse of adrenaline.

His friend smiled peacefully at him, twirling a training blade in each hand, and he wasn't sure whether that pacified or enraged him further.  
Unable to decide, Felix shook his head.

"That was a dirty trick if I've ever seen one," he stated, truthfully.  
Byleth smiled.  
"True. And quite useless, might I add, since most of my opponents aren't soft enough to loosen their grip if they think they've hurt me."

Felix blushed. It was infuriating sometimes, the way they read him like a book. But then... It was strangely comforting, too. Not that he'd ever say that out loud.

"I admit, I'm tired. Sorry for taking advantage of you like that."  
"All is fair," mumbled Felix.  
Byleth shook their head and a few of their mint strands stuck to their forehead by sweat came loose and went with the motion.  
"Still, you win tonight. As your instructor, I shouldn't rely on my estimation of your character to achieve victory - and if I hadn't, if we had been strangers meeting on the battlefield, you would have had me, easily. Your technique was flawless."  
Their serious look eased into a smile.  
"Your disarming maneuver is brilliant. Your own?"  
He nodded, flushed.  
"Thank you for teaching me. Who knows, it may save my life some day."  
_Not if I save it first,_ he thought.

"Now then," they added, resting the swords back against the weapon rack. "I believe it's time for me to retreat in shame. Next time, we'll get you back into a more fluid movement pattern. You've rusted a little, fending off those imperialists for five years."  
"I had no peer to push me."  
"So you say," they mused, and waved over their shoulder without looking back.  
"Rest well, Fraldarius. We have an army to build."

"Byleth."

They froze. Felix never called them by their name.  
They turned.

"Yes, Felix?"

"You still have the same look in your eye. Just like after you and the boar talked."

Byleth looked down. They didn't like to admit it, but such hostility from someone so dear to them hadn't left them unaffected.  
Dimitri's words still sat cold and heavy on their chest.

_If you get in my way, I will strike you down._

Felix seemed to read their thoughts.  
"Even if I'm speaking out of turn, I'll say it again. You don't owe anything to that brute."

_Not after all you have done for him. Not after all he has done to you._

The smile they gave him was soft, compassionate, almost pitiful. They shook their head, moonlight reflecting off their perfectly tousled mint hair.  
"I'm doing this of my own volition, Felix. He needs me. For all that he does to hurt me when I strive to be close to him, there is no doubt he requires it. Not only do I have to, but I _want_ to help him. That is where I need to be right now."

They left Felix feeling empty.  
As soon as the instructor had closed the doors to the training hall behind them, he took a few hollow steps to the nearest pillar and leant his back against the cold stone. His gaze wandered upwards into the starry sky as he tried to sort himself out.

In retrospect, the attempt to convince Byleth to shift their focus had been a fool's errand from the very start.  
From their first week in Garreg Mach, the new professor had made themselves known for stubborn determination just as much as for strength at arms and educational prowess.  
Felix had seen it himself many times, predominantly on the battlefield - that look in their eyes, fierce as fire and steady as steel, shining through as they wiped blood from their mouth, guided their blade or issued commands.  
It gleamed in a way that promised, with absolute certainty, a tomorrow.  
That no matter the odds, Byleth would make it so that they, and any who chose to follow them, would make it out alive.

Before he knew it, this unwavering resolve of theirs had become his inspiration - he could never have doused it, even if he had wanted to.

Felix sighed, exhausted with himself and the way his thoughts were going astray.  
So what now?  
Byleth was stubborn, and loyal to Dimitri, no matter his treatment of them. Byleth was also an adult, used to bearing responsibility and making weighted decisions.  
If they wanted to subject themselves to severe emotional abuse every day, Felix should let them.  
Shouldn't he?  
He recalled their face that day, when they had passed him on their way out of the cathedral, right by the western door where he sometimes lingered to oversee the boar prince.  
He recalled the way their eyes had met his.  
They had been... Dull.  
Not a trace of that determination, or their usual attentive curiousity. Only defeat.  
Felix, already shaken and enraged with Dimitri's words to them, had nearly shivered, unable to hold their gaze as they managed a wry smile.

Seeing Byleth broken had felt wrong.

Dimitri had offered no further comment on what he had said, only a back turned to anyone and anything but the heap of rubble in front of him.  
Felix found it hard to say which of his feelings for the prince was stronger, disdain or pity.

Just now, with him, Byleth had been animated, body and mind, and visibly so. When they were sparring, there was always the tiniest of smiles playing around their lips, so subtle that Felix had only picked up on it after weeks of training with them, and still wondered if they were aware of it themselves.  
When they were sparring, Byleth was happy, and that was how Felix wanted - needed - to see them. Always.

A blush crept across his cheeks.  
It was throbbing, this need, and it never quite went away, a constant tug inside his chest.  
When they were close, his heart raced. When they were far, it ached. When they laughed, it soared.  
When Felix couldn't find sleep at night, it was Byleth to whom his thoughts inevitably returned.

Felix wasn't enough of a moron to not understand what that meant. He refrained from punching the wall, and buried his face in his hands instead.

Just what was he supposed to do?

A humble shade of turquoise had begun creeping over the dark patch of sky above the training grounds, heralding the dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> So I finally up and finished one of my Feleth chapters to be posted here!  
They're not that consecutive, more like a loose chronology (Azure Moon route) posted in no particular order, so by any means, this isn't the first chapter or anything like that, but it's the same timeline.
> 
> This chapter takes place a few weeks or so after the timeskip. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> You can find the gender-neutral/nb Byleth design I came up with and am writing these fics around here: https://the-flying-beetle.tumblr.com/post/187470667083/made-a-more-gender-neutralenbyleth-design-because


End file.
